Resources
Class List
lbyron, eeichner, lfaigele, jgoodwyn, shegde, cjuba, mkambara, ppm, arothera, glsmith, rwagner1, cwarren, lwestove, cefallon, shoosein, zlr, aburridg, ikapur
Five Things to Remember!
We’ve taught this class several times now, and each time, students who are new to computers keep making the same basic errors. Unfortunately, these errors can cost you a lot of time and tears. If you don’t learn anything else this semester, learn these seven things and you’ll at least come away sane! We’ll explain these items as we come across them, but if you don’t understand them, ask.
- Save your work often! And when you save it, keep track of where you save it. Is it saved on your AFS (Andrew File Server) space? The local hard drive? Your thumb drive? If you don’t understand how to tell where your data is stored, you will lose data. Give your files versioned names so you don’t get confused between backups and recently-edited copies.
- Avoid editing files on a remote server. In other words, don’t “open” files locally that are stored somewhere else. This is especially true for large files (images, sounds, and video), because data can get corrupted while moving across the network. Instead, always copy the file from the remote server to your local machine, modify it locally, and then replace it on the server (preferably with a new, clearly identified filename). If you don’t understand this reminder, ask.
- Be attentive to what you’re creating links to, and understand the difference between local and absolute links. If you make an absolute link to a local file, you’ll have a dead link on the Web.
- Keep source files and project files. When working with a program that compiles media source files into a “project file” — like Audacity, Final Cut or AfterEffects — make sure to keep copies of all of these source files. And make sure to maintain their relative file paths to the project file (in other words, don’t change their folder/file relationships), or the project file won’t be able to find its source files.
- Print and screen media are different. Understand the difference between print resolution and screen resolution. Understand how to resize an image, and in particular, know what the “resample pixels” and “constrain proportions” checkboxes do. Does your image look stretched…?